Reviews

What a difference an owner makes. This used to be one of ...

What a difference an owner makes. This used to be one of my favorite Chinese restaurants, but then the owner left and took the head chef with her, and now the food is mediocre and the service less than mediocre. There may or may not be better Chinese places in downtown San Mateo (not my usual stomping ground) but I certainly can no longer recommend taking a road trip to eat here.

Foodwise, this place was pretty good. The spiciness was k...

Foodwise, this place was pretty good. The spiciness was killer for me so I chugged down two glasses of ice water. I definitely recommend the stir-fried leafy veggies. The cold spicy noodles, as well as the hot ones were nothing special though.

Servicewise, pretty bad. We made reservations, but when we got there, we STILL had to wait. But then again, they got us ice water really fast since we needed it every five minutes or so.

Terrible Service. Salty food. Racial abuse.

Place
Firstly, the place smells of cigarette smoke. Avoid sitting anywhere near the entrance or exit doors.

Food
I love Sichuan food. The quantity was reasonable, but the taste was average. It was more oily than all other Sichuan places I have eaten and less spicy than others. Also, there was very less meat. The house special version of a dish is around $8 more than the regular version of the same dish. There was nothing special about the two special dishes we ordered. Avoid ordering special dishes.

Service
We waited for about 20 mins to get our tea. That is the first thing that should have been served. We had to ask 5 times and 3 different people for the tea. We never got water despite asking for it. So we had to finish our dinner without water. Throughout our meal no one came to ask us how the food was or if we needed anything. The restaurant was not even half full. I was with 2 of my Chinese friends and we all agreed that there was lot of favoritism being showed. Especially, the Chinese customers were ignored.

After we were done with the food, it took us another 15 mins trying to get hold of someone who can get us a check. Due to the bad experience, my Chinese friend decided not to tip.

So far I cared less about this whole experience. But what happened next prompted me to give this review. One of the waitresses came outside the restaurant and started abusing my Chinese friend in Mandarin on the road, making racist comments for not tipping and creating a scene. I picked up my mobile to call the cops, but damn, it was dead. While I took my friend’s mobile to call the cops, she started walking away.

I had one good meal here about a year ago followed by a r...

I had one good meal here about a year ago followed by a really disappointing one a couple months later, and haven’t since returned. My primary criterion for Sichuan food is the presence “ma” and “la” (chili heat and sichuan peppercorn numbing quality), and neither appeared in a dish of ma po tofu ordered on the return visit.

It used to be my favorite Sichuan(spicy) Style Chinese re...

Turns up the heat!

Little Sichuan is not a place for the feint at heart. If you LOVE SPICY food, then come here immediately. They have dishes that are often too hot to handle, but you can request varying degrees of spiciness. I highly recommend the spicy…

ICK!

The resturaunt was dirty and the service was horrible. They are unable to get orders correct and they are unable to provide you with enough service (even when it isn't a busy day). (09-24-07)\r
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( the review above was made weeks before…